Russian President Vladimir Putin on Thursday ordered unscheduled military exercises involving thousands of troops and dozens of ships in the Black Sea region to test their battle readiness, the Kremlin said.

The order was presented to Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu in a sealed envelope at 4:00 am (2400 GMT), his spokesman Dmitry Peskov told Russian news agencies, adding the exercises would involve 36 ships and up to 7,000 troops.

China's new leader Xi Jinping arrived Friday in Moscow on his first foreign trip as president, to cement ties between the two countries by inking a raft of energy and investment accords.

A key deal expected to be signed between Xi and his counterpart Vladimir Putin will see Russia ramp up oil supplies to China, which is the world's biggest energy consumer.

Russian President Vladimir Putin has invited Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to Moscow in a letter congratulating him on forming a new government, an Israeli official said Wednesday.

The invitation came as U.S. President Barack Obama was due in Israel on his first visit to the Jewish state since taking office more than four years ago.

Palestinian president Mahmoud Abbas told Russian leader Vladimir Putin on Thursday he hoped to establish peace talks with Israel later this year while admitting that the chances for progress were slim.

Abbas said during a visit to Moscow he hoped "that later this year, we will see the start of substantive negotiations with Israel".

Russian leader Vladimir Putin and U.S. President Barack Obama discussed Syria and other urgent issues by telephone Friday, the Kremlin said, as U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon warned against a “dissolution” of the country.

"Within the context of the Syria crisis, Mr. Putin noted the need to end military activities as soon as possible," the Kremlin statement said, noting that the call was initiated by Washington.

French President Francois Hollande and his Russian host Vladimir Putin said Thursday they shared the same objectives on Syria, but there were few signs their talks led to any breakthrough on concrete steps to resolve the conflict.

Hollande said both Russia and France had the same goal to bring peace while avoiding the collapse of Syria but differed in particular on the role of President Bashar Assad in a power transfer.

Russia's main investigative body claimed Wednesday that Alexei Navalny, the charismatic leader of protests against President Vladimir Putin, illegally obtained his license to practice law.

Investigators said in a statement that the opposition leader and one of Russia's most popular bloggers gave "inaccurate" information to the bar.

The head of the Russian parliament's ethics committee resigned his seat on Wednesday after a leading anti-corruption crusader accused him of having U.S.-based property worth over $2 million.

Ruling party lawmaker Vladimir Pekhtin quit after Alexei Navalny, arguably the most charismatic leader of Russia's opposition movement, accused him of owning luxury property in Florida that he had not declared.

U.S. President Barack Obama will use his State of the Union address on Tuesday to call for dramatic cuts in nuclear arsenals around the world, The New York Times reported late Sunday.

Quoting unnamed administration officials, the newspaper said that in recent months Obama had secured agreement with the U.S. military that its nuclear force can be cut by roughly a third.

An elderly Russian man set himself on fire for a few seconds on Moscow's Red Square outside President Vladimir Putin's offices in the Kremlin, Interfax quoted a law enforcement source as saying on Friday.

"An elderly man tried to set himself on fire," the news agency quoted the source as saying.